Late Nights withSara-Jayne King

Sarah Emily Wild, discovered that the Department of Home Affairs changed her maiden surname to her husband’s surname without her permission.

Wild says when she took this up with them she was told that she needed to go to a home affairs office to rectify the matter.

She then went to Facebook to talk about this and over 50 women have signed a form that the department incorrectly changed their married name.

Mayihlome Tshwete, Spokesperson at Home Affairs, then clarified how this could have happened.

When you get married you have to fill in a form where you specify if you are changing your surname, going for double barrel or staying with the same surname. We have a default system where as soon as one gets married it automatically changes your surname if you don’t fill in that part. You have to fill in that part that you don’t want your surname changed.